The Council (Darkness #5)(36)

Everyone stared at me. Then glanced at Ann. She shook her head slowly. “He crossed the courtyard into the far wing. After that, I had to go in a different direction.”

“What about the guards?” John called in through the doorway. “We should ask them.”

“Yes!” I stabbed the air toward the doorway. “And who can wrangle them up? My new best friend. Let’s go pay a visit to Cato.”

The crew was following me out the door a second later. Halfway down the hall something occurred to me. “Where are all the guys that came with us? Where’s Jessie?”

“Three are healing—they came close to a hole in the ground. We’ll scoop them up when we know what we’re doing,” Jonas answered behind me.

“Is Jessie one of those three?”

“He didn’t pick up his phone,” Charles answered.

“Damn it. If he turned traitor I will… do something extremely awful.” I clenched and unclenched my fists. My emotions threatened to break free.

Get hard. You can do this, Sasha. You can lead these guys. This is not too big. You are able for it.

I took the stairs with quick steps. We exited the stairwell and pushed through the main floor, dawn approaching but the floors still busy with the escape of Andris and whoever else. A thick woman pretending to be willowy stood in our path. A human woman stood next to her, fawning like a fool.

“Move!” I commanded. My voice boomed.

Startled, she looked up and met my eyes. It took a split second for her to realize I was human. Arrogance flowed over her like a drape, some sort of cutting remark at the ready to put me in my place.

She never got the chance.

I opened up and let the elements pour in, flooding me with the bite of magic. I threw a binding spell at her right before I magically shoved her out of the way. Ass over end, she somersaulted through the lobby and crashed against a couch, turning the whole thing over.

Sound stopped, but not because of one of Cato’s spells. Every eye, most of them wide, stared at me out of shocked faces.

“I’m one of those mean humans that don’t take shit from anyone.” I flicked some cracklers toward the ceiling; Toa’s rendition of a crowd-confusion tactic. Pops, bangs and sizzles flashed.

Gasps and shrieks filled the room as we left out the side, aiming for the right wing of the complex where I knew Cato was supposed to reside. We had hardly entered the hallway before three men approached with swords and fierce expressions.

Luckily for us, we were turning left down a corridor and wouldn’t have to go past them.

Using red power, I rocketed my famous bug spell beyond them down the hall. I slowed for the spell to settle. The men braced, staring at the arsenal of warriors I had at my side. They were grossly outnumbered and they knew it.

The magic settled into the ground.

“Yup, it worked. And they are going to be feisty.” I turned and kept going. My crew followed.

“Which spell is this?” Charles asked. The slide of metal scraping sheath meant he had just pulled his sword.

“The one where magical bugs sprout up, chase me, and bite anything in its way.”

“Oh, yeah. Nasty little suckers.”

“They chase you?” Tim asked.

“Yeah. Long story.”

The men in the way, not understanding why we didn’t step forward to engage, had thirty seconds of confusion before they got a nasty surprise.

“Can’t you sic them on other people?” Tim watched the bugs in rapt attention, walking backwards to do so.

I shrugged. “Maybe. I’ve never actually tried. I learned how to work with magic and kind of forgot about all of these spells until recently.”

“Hey, where do you think—ahhhh!” The sound of the man’s voice turned into a shriek.

“Okay, hurry.” I started jogging down the corridor. “Some will get by them and I don’t want you guys to get hit from behind.”

“It’s going to catch us, Sasha,” Charles intoned, pushing me faster from behind. He’d seen those bugs a great many times.

“I’ll unravel the spell shortly, but I want them to delay those other guys.”

“Why didn’t you just take them out, human?” Jonas asked in a growl.

“One, they were just doing their job—I’d just flipped some woman across the room. Security was needed. And two, it would’ve taken a lot of energy, which I might need right now.”

This seemed to appease the grump, but I thought I would clarify one little thing. “Just so you know, Jonas, going forward, you are the only one that addresses me by ‘human’. And then only among my immediate crew who realize you are a shitty ol’ sod without a nice nerve in your body.”

“You don’t need to tell me my job. You need to learn yours.”

I couldn’t help but crack a smile. That was his way of saying, “Duly noted, Senator.”

We pushed on, nearly there, when Dave, one of Tim’s shifters, yelled up, “Here they come!”

“Are the guards coming behind them?” I yelled back, reaching with my magic towards those spells.

“No. But damn it, Sasha, they’re fast!”

I unraveled the spell as we reached a giant marble door with the name “Cato” engraved in the middle. Shiny and smooth, it looked like something that would guard a tomb.